The Proposal

As some of you may have heard, John and I are officially engaged. Finally!!! I'm so excited. We're planning to get married later this year in the Fall. Partly because I love the Fall and also because we don't want to rush the planning and get overly stressed out. For those of you who haven't heard the proposal story, here it is, with pictures!:

John and I both had very big years in 2008 - individually and as a couple (work milestones, lasik eye surgery, 30th birthdays, new car, buying the house, remodeling, moving in together, etc.) so John decided to finish the year off with another big event by asking me to marry him on December 31st.

We had been planning to get to Costco early that morning before it got too crowded. We ended up sleeping in a little bit so I was in the house hurrying to get ready when I realized I hadn't heard a peep out of John for awhile. I took a quick peek outside in the garage and saw him out there. I assumed he was putting away Christmas presents or something so I went back to getting dressed. Once I was about finished I went to the back door to tell John I was ready. He said ok, but come out here a minute to see what I did. At this point I was a bit suspicious. I wasn't thinking he was about to propose or anything, but I was wondering what in the heck he was doing out there! So, I put on my shoes and went outside. He told to me to go over to the tree in the backyard. I saw this (click on the picture to enlarge it):

Now I'm TOTALLY suspicious. Why in the heck is the packaging for a CHISEL set nailed to our tree??? I'm still not thinking proposal though. The whole thing is just weird. I walked over to look at it and John tells me to look under the packaging. I pull it off and see this: Then I turn around to look at John and I see this:

John then asks me to marry him and I say of course I'll marry you! Then we hug and kiss and sniffle (John was crying and I got teary since I'm such a social cryer). I was really just happy more than anything else. Then I tell John to go into the house and get his camera so we can get pictures for the scrapbook! And that's basically how it happened. I was sooooo happy! John even "did it right" by talking to my Dad before-hand. I did a good job picking him, huh? So look forward to hearing about wedding plans and all of the other exciting events we're looking forward to in 2009. We're having big years back to back!! Events to come: We're getting a dog soon!, family vacation to Twin Lakes, Bobby and Renee's first baby, the wedding, the honeymoon, and all of the "small" things that come along in between.

P.S. We did make it to Costco, just a little later than I thought we were going to. Believe me, I didn't mind waiting!!